Wire wrap Jewelry: Pendants, Pins, Earrings, Bracelets

My husband has been faceting for 30 years and has been teaching at the club for approx. 25 years. An excellent Facetor, Gary is a Master Gem cutter. His contribution to Kathy's Kreation are his hundreds, yes hundreds, of Faceted Gems. I started by making cabochons back in 1980. A cabochon starts as a slab or slice of rock which is cut to shape and polished using progressively finer grits on grinding wheels, then onto one or more polishing wheels till the stone had the shine that was accepted...

My husband has been faceting for 30 years and has been teaching at the club for approx. 25 years. An excellent Facetor, Gary is a Master Gem cutter. His contribution to Kathy's Kreation are his hundreds, yes hundreds, of Faceted Gems. I started by making cabochons back in 1980. A cabochon starts as a slab or slice of rock which is cut to shape and polished using progressively finer grits on grinding wheels, then onto one or more polishing wheels till the stone had the shine that was accepted by the teacher and student. After making lots of cabochons, my next adventure was to learn silverwork. Sawing, soldering, polishing, at which time I made chains, rings, a belt buckle and several pendants. Learning how to make Channel Jewelry was really exciting. Starting with sterling silver wire which is 22 gauge 1/8th inch wide, a design is made - either a picture or geometric design - and the pieces of this design are soldered together. The "lacey" design is next soldered onto a flat sheet of sterling silver (usually 3x3 inches). Once this has been completed and the outside of the sheet silver cut to shape, then stones are ground to fit into each of the channels and epoxy is used to keep them in place. The piece, with its bumpy surface is then "flat lapped" grinding the stones down to level with the design wire and then polished. This is a labor intensive work, the steps are not difficult, but the grinding of the small stones to fit into the channels takes time.